India’s Currency Controls & The EB-5 Visa

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Davies & Associates, LLC tours India with EB5 Capital to discuss investment while complying with the law

On a recent visit to India, EB5 Capital, a leading US EB-5 Regional Center, based in Washington DC, working in partnership with Davies & Associates, LLC, a leading US business immigration law firm, shared insights on how EB-5 investors are able to comply with India’s currency controls.

As per the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS), made available by the Reserve Bank of India, resident individuals are allowed to remit up to $250,000 per financial year (April 1 – March 31) for any permitted capital account transactions. The normal investment for EB-5 visa program is $500,000 – double the amount that can be taken out of India in any given year.

According to the current regulations, the controls allow investors to take out only half of the money they need to invest in EB-5 in any given year. This is a major hurdle for Indian investors wishing to get a green card to the United States. However, clients can take advantage of the end of the financial year to make payments in close instalments that span two separate financial years. EB5 Capital’s clients have, in the past, taken advantage of the year-end closing in March by making a partial payment before April 1st, and then immediately file their I-526 Petitions with USCIS to lock in their priority dates.

“We are glad to have another extension through September after coming out of the recent government shutdown,” says Brian Ostar, Senior VP of Global Operations at EB5 Capital. “The markets are strong right now and 9 months is longer than some of the short-term extensions we’ve experienced since 2015. With new EB-5-related bills being introduced into Congress recently, as well as the OMB’s advancement of new EB-5 regulations which would increase the investment amount substantially, we are predicting a strong rest of the year for EB-5 filings, especially from India.”

India is now EB5 Capital’s largest market, and its team travels throughout the country every other month. “Although the EB-5 program was well-known in India since 2013, it has particularly gained in popularity over the last 2-3 years. The number of EB-5 visa applications from India nearly tripled for our company since 2017”, says Anubhuti Dhand, Manager of Investor Relations at EB5 Capital.

Mark Davies, Global Chairman of Davies & Associates, LLC added, “India’s currency control is often one of the first issues our EB-5 clients ask us about. While there are different options for addressing this, splitting payments between financial years is the most straightforward. We work with our clients and their chosen Regional Center to facilitate this process.”

Davies added that “US regulatory reforms mean that a pricing increase has become a very real possibility for the first time.” In addition to the likely pricing increase, Indian EB-5 applicants are likely to exceed their maximum visa allocation under EB-5 for the first time this year. This means that Indian clients are desperate to file EB-5 cases as quickly as they can. For this reason, the EB5 Capital Regional Center program is highly attractive to our clients as it allows them to file an EB-5 application immediately by transferring $250,000 to the US before March 31, 2019, and the balance after April 1. By filing now, an EB-5 client can lock-in the current lower EB-5 price and minimise the chances of any retrogression delay, while being completely compliant with Indian currency transfer laws. EB5 Capital, working with the law firm Davies & Associates, will continue to provide this flexibility for clients who wish to file first with a partial payment, given the upcoming visa retrogression for India later this year. The expectation for clients who wish to file with a partial payment before April is that the remaining balance would come shortly thereafter.

About EB5 Capital:

EB5 Capital, a Regional Center based out of Washington, DC, has one of the most competitive track records in the EB-5 industry. Established in 2008, the firm has raised more than $600 million in EB-5 funds across 25 projects, with investors coming from nearly 60 countries. In addition to many investors who have already received their permanent Green Cards, EB5 Capital has also repaid investors in full across eight projects. The CEO and Founder, Angelique Brunner, is an industry expert, a strong advocate of the Program, and has been invited by Congress to testify about her success. Her 35-person team is one of the largest in the industry and has deep expertise in real estate, finance, and immigration and securities law.

About Davies & Associates:

Davies & Associates, LLC is a full service U.S. immigration law firm headquartered in New York City, USA with offices across the globe. The firm specializes in providing innovative and customized immigration solutions to a large number of clients from all across the globe.

With an exceptionally talented team of lawyers drawn from the “top 10” American law firms and leading ivy-league schools, Davies & Associates, LLC primarily focuses on immigration law. Over time they have established themselves as industry leaders for US immigration. They are well known for their industry leading client services and obtaining remarkable results.

They are licensed to practice law in multiple international jurisdictions with offices based in strategic locations around the world. The firm represents a wide range of clients such as multi-national corporations, mid and small-sized businesses across all industrial sectors, investors, individual professionals, entrepreneurs as well as families. Davies & Associates, LLC has a dedicated India and South East Asia team which comprises of dual qualified attorneys licensed to practice law both in India and the United States.

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